Marijke van Warmerdam: a unique retrospective

This autumn, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen presents a retrospective exhibition featuring a selection from the oeuvre of Marijke van Warmerdam (1959). This is the first exhibition on this scale of Marijke van Warmerdam’s work in the Netherlands.

Marijke van Warmerdam has created a unique oeuvre in the last twenty years. In addition to the well-known film loops, such as ‘Handstand’ (1992) and ‘Skytypers’ (1997), with which she achieved international recognition in the 1990s, the museum will be showing photographic works, sculptures, installations and painted film stills on canvas. New work will also be on show in the museum, work that Van Warmerdam has made specially for the exhibition, such as the new films ‘Face to face’ (2011), 'Rrrolle - blue' (2011) and ‘Rrrolle - red’ (2011). The official opening of ‘Marijke van Warmerdam - Close by in the distance’ is on October 28. (note for editors: press preview on 26 October)

Filmic work

Marijke van Warmerdam belongs, together with people such as Stan Douglas, Tacita Dean and Douglas Gordon, to a generation of artists who, since the 1990s, experimented in an innovative way with the possibilities of video and film. Van Warmerdam’s fascinating concern with the principles of perception and image construction leads the viewer to new ways of looking and experiencing.

Deceptive simplicity

In her work, Van Warmerdam chooses remarkably simple subjects. She doesn’t tell stories, but relies on the visual power of the motif. “Visual art at its best,” says director Sjarel Ex. In the publication accompanying the exhibition, art and culture critic Maarten Doorman typifies the work of Van Warmerdam as “the deceptive simplicity of a declaration of love to life and the things around us.”

Biography

Marijke van Warmerdam lives and works in Amsterdam and Karlsruhe. She participated in many important international exhibitions including the biennales in Venice, Sydney and Berlin and Documenta X in Kassel. She has exhibited several times at Art Unlimited during Art Basel. Van Warmerdam has had retrospective exhibitions at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, the Migros Museum in Zurich, the ICA in Boston, MuHKA in Antwerp and currently at Magasin 3 in Stockholm.

Publication and ArtTube video

The richly illustrated book entitled ‘Close by in the distance’, will be published mid-October and be on sale in the museum shop for € 34.95. (ISBN: 978-3-86335-109-0) This English publication with Dutch translation contains essays by Maarten Doorman, Philippe-Alain Michaud, Fiona Bradley and Michaela Unterdörfer. Film maker Rudolf Evenhuis has made a documentary about Marijke van Warmerdam, which can be seen in the museum. A shortened version can be seen from the beginning of October on the online video channel arttube.boijmans.nl.

Abroad

The exhibition ‘Marijke van Warmerdam - Close by in the distance’ will travel from Rotterdam to Museum Serralves in Porto (spring 2012) and the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (winter 2012 - 2013). Guest curator for the exhibition is Jan Debbaut, former director of Collections at Tate Modern in London.

SNS REAAL Fonds is the chief sponsor of the exhibition ‘Marijke van Warmerdam - Close by in the distance’. The exhibition is supported by Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, sponsored by Breeman Talle Fonds. The publication is supported by Fonds BKVB.